Aftermath
by Queen Ghidorah
Summary: A snippet from one of the stories about the short-lived draconian, Groul, from Dragons of a Fallen Sun that I'm working on. Call it a sneak peek. Takes place after a bit of a binge...


**Disclaimer: I, Queen Ghidorah, don't own anything but this computer, this brain, and myself...unfortunately ****

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An annoyingly bright sun served as Groul's alarm clock the next day as the unholy beams pounded against his eyelids. Fully aware that to expose his tender eyeballs to the fate his lids were condemned to would not only be painful, but also blinding, he rolled onto his side and allowed his first sight of the morning to be Sophie's hair. The human was on her face, sound asleep, with her tresses cascading across her back and shoulders. The dark auburn locks looked invitingly soft right then and, on an impulse, the draconian reached out a claw to stroke them. At the gentle touch, Sophie snorted in her sleep, mumbled something, and lifted her head up. Groul, loathe to be caught in such a tender act, snapped his claw back to his side and quickly focused his attention onto the roof of their shared tent, squinting in the face of the filtering daylight. There was a small chance that Sophie would fall back to sleep if he was quiet. When no sounds of rousing came from the drowsy human, Groul chanced a glance out of the corner of his eye.

Big mistake.

A sharp pain attacking the back of his optics, Groul yelped and sat up. His wings lashed open instinctively and knocked into the tent's central support pole, managing to collapse the whole thing on their heads. Cursing to every god he'd ever heard of, the draconian refrained from shredding the tent to free himself by sheer willpower alone and resorted to just bashing it away. All of these actions only intensified a headache he barely realized he had and subjected him to the mercy of the sun. The sun obviously didn't like him today as it pierced at his sensitive eyes with white hot intensity. Wondering why he felt so battered, the Baaz looked over to Sophie to inquire after his health. To his surprise, he found the human was still snoozing. Well, that could be remedied with a not-so-gentle poke in between the ribs. She giggled ticklishly, he sighed in exasperation, and she obediently sat up. Yawning and scratching her side, the human blinked groggily at her scaled comrade.

"Mornin', Groul. In pain?"

The reptile stared.

"How did you _ever_ guess?"

Ignoring his sarcasm, his companion answered amiably.

"It wasn't hard once I saw your face and figured in all that ale you had last night."

The draconian looked genuinely surprised at her words. She lifted an eyebrow inquisitively.

"You don't remember, do you?"

"No, I don't. Enlighten me?"

"Do you at least recall running into a town the other day?"

Groul took a moment to mull over what little scraps of recollection he could muster before replying.

"Yeah...vaguely."

Sophie chuckled at his exertion.

"Don't strain yourself, dear. Take my word for it that we ran into a town. And after all that tramping we did in the forest, it was a God-send. All I wanted was a dry place to rest but the first thing you said was that you needed a drink. I personally thought you meant water or something but I'd forgotten about your kinds'...habits. Anyway, we found this grungy little place and I opted for something better but you said it'd be just fine. I wasn't too eager about it but I left you at the bar, figuring you knew what you were doing, and went to find a mirror. Fortunately, there was one in the back and I didn't even recognize myself when I looked in it. How'd you let me go around like that? My hair was horrendous and I looked like I'd been beaten up by some sort of demented -"

Groul winced as Sophie's voice began to rise in her enthusiasm and he held up a restraining claw.

"Yes, yes the hair. I was wondering why it was so pretty...er, I mean...groomed this morning. But does this have anything to do with my current agony or are you making senseless and most aggravating noise just for fun?"

Sophie looked apologetic and duly lowered her tone.

"Oh, sorry. I get kind of carried away. You know that my mind gets ahead of me when I'm talking and anything will remind me of something different and I go all off track chasing some other story. You wouldn't believe what I've come up with just jabbering about the simplest -"

"Sophie! Ouch, my head. Quit making me yell, girl, and get on with it. How much did I have? To drink, I mean."

Sophie paused to consider this, absently picking at her fingernails as she thought.

"Um, let's see. When I came back after picking leaves out of my hair you were already kinda tipsy. I could tell because you kept calling me 'Shoshie' and grabbing me around the waist."

Groul groaned.

"Really?"

"Mhm. It wasn't so bad. It kept the others at bay and when I squirmed away you just went back to your little jar thingie. What are those called, by the way?"

"Um, a tankard?"

"That's it."

"How many?"

"Tankards? Uh...eight?"

"Ugh!"

"Tell me about it. Anywho, after the eighth I guess you got kinda queasy."

"What!"

"Yeah, it was a little funny but mostly gross. I told you we should probably get going and, at first, you started to protest but then _huurrk_! Right in some guy's satchel."

"Oh goddess..."

"Luckily, he didn't notice right away and I managed to haul you out of there before chaos ensued. You're a pretty tame drunk, y'know? Except that you were constantly trying to cop a feel while I was half supporting you. What's your deal?"

Groul shrugged and stretched out a wing to shield his face from the decisively evil sun.

"Do I even want to know what happened next?"

"Meh, nothing much. I brought you here, set up camp, and you fell right to sleep like a little baby. You looked all sweet and peaceful."

"I don't feel very sweet right now."

"Hung over, dear?"

"I guess so."

"You've never been before?"

"I have, of course, but it's been awhile since I binged like that. But I thought, being dead as we are, we couldn't be affected by things like that anymore?"

"We still feel pain so it's only natural alcohol would continue to have an influence. Would you really drink it if it didn't have an effect?"

Groul growled softly in response. Taking that as a "no", Sophie patted her friend affectionately and stood up, stretching.

"Wanna know more about yesterday or are you wanting some silence?"

"Silence would be good. Though...you said I kept groping you?"

"Yep."

The large Baaz gave a smutty smile.

"Did I get very far?"

"Groul! You perv!"

"Ow! The volume, Soph, the volume!"

**END**

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**Queen Ghidorah: "I'm planning on writing up Sophie and Groul's whole story soon (and little episodes o' course) but I thought I'd get a snippet of it out first. Y'know, to be evaluated before I do anything else. This is actually a piece of a bigger story. Review, please, so I can know what y'all think! Criticism is appreciated since I DO want to become a better writer." ) 


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